Flamebow Dash
by Velvet D'Coolette
Summary: Rainbow Dash, unsurprisingly, loves adulation, and she believes that defeating a dragon in battle is the best way to remain everyone's favourite pegasus. Maybe a dragon was a bit much for her to take on, though...
1. Chapter 1

Flamebow Dash

All was peaceful in Ponyville, its inhabitants just now waking to the rising sun. One particular pony was fast asleep in the clouds, her rainbow colored mane blowing gently in the wind. As the sun rose over the clouds, its bright rays hit the pony in the face, causing one eye to squint open. Sitting up, the pony stretched her wings and shook the kinks out of her body.

"Okay, Rainbow Dash! Today is the day!" The young Pegasus exclaimed, trying to bolster her confidence.

Recently, just about every pony has begun to ignore poor Rainbow Dash, even Fluttershy, the friendliest of all the ponies of Ponyville. She'd had dreams - exciting dreams - of joining the Wonderbolts and impressing them with her Sonic Rainboom. It was unusual for a pegasus to be able to do one of those and she'd been revered for a while after she'd achieved her second one, but it hadn't lasted. The Mysterious Mare Do Well had appeared and, even though she'd turned out not to be real, she'd stolen Dash's thunder.

One thing was very clear to Rainbow Dash: she needed to steal that thunder back!

The previous day while trying to come up with ways to get them talking about her again, she came across a flyer right outside of Ponyville, describing a bounty for whoever got rid of the dragon in the nearby mountains.

"A dragon, you say? This is just the thing I was looking for! If I take down that dragon, everypony is sure to brag about me endlessly!" Of course, Rainbow Dash barely slept that night, looking up the location of the dragon and thinking about what she could use to give her an advantage.

The blue Pegasus stood, opened her wings, and rocketed towards Ponyville. Nearing the ground, Rainbow Dash reduced her speed and landed without crashing into anypony. Seeing Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash tried say good morning, but the usually friendly pony turned her tail towards Rainbow Dash and trotted off. With a disheartened sigh, the thought of defeating the dragon deepened her resolve and off she went to the armory.

xXx

Having bought what she thought was necessary, Rainbow Dash came out covered in a steel breastplate and a few pieces of armor for her legs. Next she went to the blacksmiths to find a suitable weapon. At first she thought a sword, but she realized that she also wanted a bit of distance from her adversary. It wasn't long before the Pegasus picked up a sturdy looking spear, she even practiced with it for a few moments before making her decision.

"Oh my, seems to me that you're going on a journey my dear." The blacksmith commented as he confirmed her purchase.

"Well, its a bit of a secret. I'll tell everypony about it once I get back."

The blacksmith nodded before rubbing his hoof against his chin. "Then I suggest going by the alchemist shop. They have some excellent potions and maybe they have one that might be of help."

With a huge grin on her face, Rainbow Dash thanked the blacksmith, strapped the spear to her back and immediately flew over to the alchemist shop.

It took a few moments to ask the alchemist pony for something that would help her defend against fire, but it was also hard coming up with a good enough excuse as to why she needed it.

Eventually the pony produced a bottle with glowing red liquid inside. "This will make you temporarily fire proof, but-"

Rainbow Dash didn't hear the rest of what he said, as soon as he said fire proof, she let his words go in one ear, but right out the other. "It's perfect! How much?" The Pegasus was literally bouncing about within her armor.

The alchemist pony told her that it was prototype, and that he would let her use it on a trial run. "Just come back and tell me how well it works."

Rainbow Dash took the potion and quickly left the shop, and flew up to her cloud. "Now, just to the find the dragon."

It wasn't hard figuring out which mountains looked like a dragon was living in them, but what was difficult was reaching the dragon. Rainbow Dash had already tried flying to the top, only to come back to the ground, her wings completely covered in ice. Not only was it too cold, but the wind was so strong, it nearly blew her all the way back to Ponyville.

The Pegasus sat there for a few moments as she tried to come up with another way to reach the dragon when she noticed a cave nearby. "If there's a cave, then there might be a tunnel, which means, it might take me to the top." And with that hope in mind, Rainbow Dash trotted into the cave, the only sound that could be heard now was her hooves echoing against the cave floor and the sounds of her armor clinking together.

At first it seemed as though the cave tunnel just went straight, Rainbow Dash was starting to grow impatient, until she came across an opening, but instead of only one route, there were two more openings in the far wall. The Pegasus knew that she wanted to go up, so after she examined the two different paths, she found that the left path went down but the right one went up.

"Then it has to be the right path. Watch out dragon, Rainbow Dash is coming for ya!" With a bounce in her trot, she quickly made her way up the path. After a few moments, Rainbow Dash could see what she could only assume were scorch marks on the walls, the Pegasus taking a hoof and planting it against the scorched wall. As she pulled it away, she left a hoof print and her hoof was covered in ash.

Several feet ahead of her, she could make out large gouges scoring the wall, the Pegasus mistaking it for natural cracks at first, but as she got closer, she realized her mistake. She had to look straight up just to see the top of the claw marks.

As she continued up the tunnel, she then decided that now would be the best time to take the potion, the glowing contents casting a red light onto the wall and her armor. Taking the cork with her teeth, she popped the bottle open and spat out the cork. Rainbow Dash downed the potion in one gulp, the Pegasus noticing the spicy cinnamon flavor.

Just as she peeked around the corner, a blast of fire rushed towards her, the Pegasus able to scramble back in time just as the flames forcefully hit the wall. Taking to the air, Rainbow Dash readied her staff, the head glinting from the fading flames. Her eyes grew wide as she took in the massive size of the dragon, Rainbow Dash's confidence almost went out, but the glint of the potion vial made Rainbow Dash remember that she was now fire-proof and with that in mind, rushed at the giant, winged lizard.

"I, Rainbow Dash, declare you defeated! I will take you down and everyone will have to continue talking about me." Spear poised, she swiftly dodged another stream of fire and swung as hard as she could. The tip bounced off the dragon's hide with a spray of sparks and the recoil immediately made Rainbow Dash vibrate as she held on to the spear.

The dragon began to make a huffing sound, Rainbow Dash could only figure that the dragon was laughing at her. Gritting her teeth, she went in for another attack, but instead of attacking randomly, like before, she found a soft spot under the dragon's armpit. With another swing, the tip pierced the soft flesh and tore a small wound, a small bead of blood beginning to form. With a smirk, she went to strike the spot again, when suddenly the dragon's tail appeared from behind her and caught her on the behind, the cave resounding with an audible snap as the tip made contact with her left butt cheek.

"Ouch!" With two quick flaps of her wings, the Pegasus quickly flew out of range of the dragon's tail. Rubbing her cheek with her hoof, she glared at the dragon. 'A sneak attack with the tail, huh?'

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to come up with a plan to at least cause some damage. Her biggest problems were the teeth, claws and scales, but she also needed to be careful of the tail too.

The dragon's eyes just watched as the horse fly fluttered about out of his range and so far his flames haven't come close to touching her. With a growl, the dragon coiled his muscles, the movement causing his scales to have a ripple effect along his body. With ease, the dragon hurled himself into the air and with his right claw, he went to swat her out of the sky.

Rainbow Dash was not expecting the dragon to suddenly jump, nor did she expect the sudden impact that sent her flying towards the earth. The initial pain had her stunned at first, but just as she was about to become Pegasus puddle, her wings flared open and drastically slowed her descent.

Still landing in a heap, Rainbow Dash rolled head over heels until she came to a stop at the cave wall. Blowing out some air, she moved her tail out of her face only to see the dragon's front claw come rushing down at her. With a mad scramble, she managed to right herself and fly out of harm's way, with milliseconds to spare. Breathing heavily, she realized that she no longer had her spear. Looking around wildly, she managed to catch sight of it beside the dragon, the tip embedded in the earth.

"Crap."

Rainbow Dash felt less secure without the spear, but she still had her speed, and with a determined stare, watched to see what the dragon's next move would be.

"Come on ugly. I know ya want to!" She sneered, trying to goad the dragon into attacking. Which of course, ended up working. The dragon roared in annoyance and let loose another stream of fire, but instead of just letting her dodge it like before, he opened his wings and began to flap until there was a strong gust blowing against the Pegasus. This caused Rainbow Dash to be blown straight into the flames, but luckily the fire was already faded and so Rainbow Dash was blown into the cave wall instead.

Letting out a grunt, she pushed her head away from the wall, despite the strong gust the dragon was making, and struggled to stand against the wall.

"I will not fall!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, and with several flaps of her wings, she slowly but surely got herself off the wall.

The dragon, not expecting this, stopped making the wind and barely caught sight of Rainbow Dash as she sped past him and straight for her spear. Trying to react quickly, he turned around and tried squashing her underneath his feet. The Pegasus dodged each stomp with quick zigzag movements and as she reached her spear, the dragon's tail came slamming down on her.

The dragon, having expected to see a flat horse with wings, lifted his tail, only to reveal Rainbow Dash with a bloody spear. She had managed to manoeuvre the spear head just as the tail reached the tip of her hair, making the tip plunge right into flesh, creating a small pocket of space for Rainbow Dash to survive the impact.

Coughing up some dust, she used the spear as a way to hold herself before she took to the skies again.

"You're strong for an insignificant insect." The dragon's voice rumbled as he was watching her movements. "However, you will never defeat me with your puny strength."

The dragon began to laugh at Rainbow Dash for her efforts but with his attention distracted, the Pegasus suddenly dashed at him and swung the spear. The tip caught the dragon's eye and with the feel of resistance, Rainbow Dash add more strength, the flesh tearing open.

The dragon roared painfully and clamped his front claw to his left eye, blood running down his cheek and hitting the earth. Letting loose flames in random directions the dragon had Rainbow Dash dancing around just to avoid the onslaught of attacks. Rainbow Dash wasn't quite sure on how long she had been battle locked with the dragon, her breaths coming out in gasps.

Not taking a moment to ponder on it, she went airborne just as the dragon's tail rushed right underneath her, the tip of her tail hairs swaying from the sudden gust of wind. Rainbow Dash kept a firm grip on her spear as she made her way to the far side of the cave.

Feeling cold wind behind her told Rainbow Dash that she was by the exit, but she quickly decides against taking the fight out there, for the dragon would have the advantage. She was lucky enough that the cramped space gave her enough room to menuaver out of the dragon's attacks.

"You should know better than to underestimate a Pegasus! Keep doing so and I will defeat y-!" Her confidence never wavered, nor did her determination - but she had to dash out of the way as he spat a plume of flame at her.

Charging the dragon, she aimed her spear for the dragon's other eye, but a sudden incoming flame caused Rainbow Dash to change course, instead, the spear head to through the thin membrane of the dragon's left wing.

Thinking that maybe if she kept him from being able to fly if they so happen to take the fight outside, she sliced another hole through the dragon's wing.

Feeling the sting on his destroyed wing, he deftly turned his body and swiped at her. The tip of his claw hooked her armor and sent her flying away from him. Righting herself, Rainbow Dash's breathing came in short breathes, sweat beginning to drip from her snout.

Everypony back home only thought of her as a braggart, and that may be true, but she did have a heart and she always helped them out when they needed it. Despite them turning their backs on her, Rainbow Dash stayed loyal and with her friends in mind, the Pegasus charged at the dragon, except this time, she went for his right side.

Quickly dodging the dragons bite attack, she went to the soft flesh of the under arm and plunged the spear head easily through. Twisting the spear, she began to push, the blade easily cutting through the tissue. The tip barely touched an artery when the dragons tail came for another whip on the butt.

This time however, Rainbow Dash expected it and dodged it. Swinging the spear, she also managed to cut the tip of the tail off. The dragon roared, trying to get the pest away from his soft underbelly, but Rainbow Dash continued to attack and run until the dragon was nearly bleeding from each wound she inflicted.

Annoyed that the horse with wings had not died and even took out his eye, the dragon started to grow even more irritated, the great lizard flapping his wings before settling them on his back. Deciding now would be the best time to use his last resort attack, a blue light began to glow within the dragon's maw.

Rainbow Dash was too tired to see the light until blue flames began to lick about from between the dragons teeth. With wide eyes, Rainbow Dash dived down just as the blue fireball flew from the dragon's maw and missed her by the length of a horseshoe.

Misjudging her trajectory, she tumbled head over hooves away from the dragon, but Rainbow Dash's triumphant dodge would soon be interrupted, the fireball having bounced off the wall and honed in on the Pegasus's butt. At first Rainbow Dash didn't feel anything, assuming the potion was doing it's job, that is, until the fiery hot pain blinded her mind.

"YEEEEEOOOOOWWW!" She screamed and zipped right out of the cave exit and into a small pile of snow nearby, screaming "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" as whe went. Her poor butt stung so badly that even the snow only seemed to make it worse. "Oh my Celstia! Hot! Hot!" The pain was as if Rainbow Dash had stuck her hooves in an oven and tried pulling out a hot pan without oven mitts on. The heat had been so intense, that when Rainbow Dash had plunged her glowing, bright, red singed butt into the snow pile, it quickly melted around her and steam soon took to the sky.

Not even thinking of why the potion didn't work, she instead thought about how hot the fire had been and how she didn't realize that dragons always had an ace hidden.

"The flame... It hurts so much! Even the snow doesn't help." She whimpered, her bravado clearly nowhere to be seen, of course, who wouldn't become afraid of a dragon that could make you his next meal.

The dragon had watched the Pegasus stare dumbfounded at the blue flame for a moment and burst out laughing at her pained reaction. Her speed had increased though, so the dragon hadn't been able to keep her from fleeing from him and barely missed as she flew outside.

Soon the dragon could make out cries of pain and the smell of melting snow, the lizards lips curling into a smile. With a chuckle, the lizard decided that this battle must come to an end and that meant Pegasus steak for dinner. Letting out a loud roar, the dragon flapped his great wings and slowly made his way to the exit. He wanted to savor his victory as he looked the horsefly in the eyes and saw the true terror there would he be pleased.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she thought about her loss with the dragon, she was quite lucky that the fireball didn't do anything else by burn her butt cheeks, her tail still shining and singe free. With each movement she made, she cried out, but the dragon's roar soon turned her pain into fear. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Rainbow Dash half galloped and half slid down the mountainside, of course, this didn't help things when it came to her burned buttocks. With each cry of pain, she could hear the sound of the angry dragon echoing in her head. The further down the mountain she went, the less she was able to hear the dragon, relief beginning to fill her.


	2. Chapter 2

Flamebow Dash

The Pegasus finally made it to the bottom of the mountain, but the pain from her burned butt was too intense for her to continue. Rainbow Dash stood there, her legs shaking, as she tried to ride out the pain until it dulled.

"Why didn't it work?!" she lamented to herself, the sound a wail that she refused to let degenerate into weeping.

The pain, the heat!

She thought about the potion. "It should have worked. It should have worked! I just don't understand. What went wrong?" She put her elbows on the ground and held her head in her front hooves to try and work out what she'd done. They were cold and, although they couldn't cool down her butt, at least they could distract her a little by chilling her temples.

The pony who had sold her the potion might have played a trick on her. "Could that be it?" she wondered. Was the alchemist a practical joker? Rainbow Dash's pride wanted her to assume he was, but however she tried to make the theory fit, it just wouldn't.

In that case, had the alchemist played this trick only on her? Had he had a vendetta against Rainbow Dash? "But who would have a vendetta against me?" she asked aloud. She liked to brag but she never did anything bad to ponies. She wanted to be a hero, not a villain and she was proud of her record of heroism.

"But that doesn't mean he wasn't bitter about something." What had the alchemy pony been like? Rainbow Dash tried to remember - had he been reserved? Cold? Angry? Indifferent? Dash didn't think he'd been very angry - if he'd been furious for some reason Rainbow Dash expected she'd have remembered - but she couldn't remember. Not at all.

"Did I annoy him by not noticing him?" That was a scary thought. "Is that it? Am I thoughtless?"

She'd never heard of anything like this happening to thoughtful ponies like Fluttershy. "But then, wouldn't she keep this quiet?" Rainbow Dash asked herself and looked around at her butt. It was still glowing red and she sat gingerly on the cold, rocky ground to cool it again. The instant she made contact she winced and lay on her belly again.

"We're really good friends. Surely she'd say so if anyone played a trick on her. And if it was something like this, it'd take a long time to heal. She told the rest of us when Zecora turned her voice deep. No, she wouldn't hide it. Nopony's played a trick on Fluttershy."

Rainbow Dash sighed, and blinked to dry the tears at the corners of her eyes - her butt stang so bad!

"So maybe it wasn't a trick. What else could it have been?" She gazed into the distance and thought. It normally wasn't Rainbow Dash's style to sit and think - she was a doer, not a thinker - but she needed the heat to fade before she could move very much.

"Wait," she said in a quiet voice as another thought came to her. "What if it was me? What if I did, instead of thought about it? Come on Rainbow Dash, what would Twilight have done. Come on pony, think think think."

Twilight would probably have researched the potion. The idea of heading down to the library made Dash snort. "I'm not a researcher. But I suppose I could have learned a little about it, maybe from the alchemist."

What had the alchemist said about it? He'd said it would make her temporarily fireproof. "Well, it would be strange if it worked forever," Rainbow Dash said, feeling a little more like herself. But then she remembered what she was trying to do and thought about what else the alchemist had said.

Come back and let me know how it works.

Come back. And let me know how it works...

He hadn't known for sure how well it was going to work. "Oh heck!" Rainbow Dash growled to herself and hid her face in her hooves again. He'd told her and everything - how embarrassing! How could she possibly go back and tell the alchemist about any of this?

Short answer: she couldn't. All she could do was sit tight - here and at home - and wait for the burn to disappear.

It didn't go away entirely, but she was able to stand it enough to flap her wings and begin her journey back home. With each flap, she slowly undid her armor and watched as it fell to the ground below. With each piece gone, she felt lighter and it made it easier to flap her wings without her butt hurting in the process.

As she flew closer to Ponyville, she looked behind her at her butt, her bright red cheeks bringing an humiliating blush to her face.

"Oh horseshoes. There's no way I'd be able explain my poor butt to any of the other ponies!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, the Pegasus staring at it in disbelief, but with the pain, she had no choice but to believe.

Unable to face the humiliation of telling the other ponies of her humiliating defeat against the dragon, she decided against going to the doctor and to avoid everypony until her butt healed.

Soon she could see Ponyville in the horizon, the sun beginning to fall behind the clouds, which told Rainbow Dash that the ponies would be heading to their homes to get ready for bed. With a small smile of relief, and a twinge of pain, she headed straight for her cloud.

xXx

It took several weeks for Rainbow Dash's butt and self-esteem to recover, the Pegasus having not been able sit or lay down since the butt burning incident. Just thinking about it brought shivers down her spine.

The clouds were cool - why wouldn't they be? They were high up in the air and made of water - so Rainbow Dash learned quickly that sitting on the clouds helped her some. There were just two problems: one, despite the cotton-softness of the clouds they actually felt rough to her incredibly sore butt, and two, the heat of her butt kept warming the cloud until it wasn't soothing her any more.

On one of these occasions Dash huffed irritably as she rocked onto her belly, the cloud behind her warmed by the long-lasting heat. "If only I could find something that was cold all the time," she grumbled. Then she had an idea. "Ice!"

Ice was solid - hard and even tough to sensitive skin, in other words - so at first she thought that'd be a problem. "But if I use an ice pack with soft material that should be fine," she comforted herself. "And it should be cold enough to numb my skin, so the roughness of the ice shouldn't matter."

She discretely found a piece of soft material and collected some ice from a nearby mountain, bagged it up in the material, and came back to her cloud.

She lay on her belly, splayed her hind legs and carefully settled the ice pack on her butt cheeks. The intense sensation was instantaneous. The shock of the frozen ice made her grunt, as did the sudden pain of lumpy objects resting on her butt. But within seconds the feeling changed. The chill of the ice leeched into the flesh of her burning butt and froze it into submission.

"Oh man!" she groaned to herself, her voice rough with the intense sensations. She buried her blue muzzle into the soft cloud. "Oooooh maaaaaann..."

She lay there for a while, able to do little else but groan. It wasn't just that the ice cooled her flesh, there was more to it than that. Perhaps it was relief. Perhaps it was... what were they called? Endorphines flooding her system after all the pain. Perhaps it was the fact that the cold sensation was such a contrast to the burning she'd been tolerating for so long. Whatever it was she spent that time, spread-eagled on the cloud, in bliss.

The ice pack was mostly watertight but not quite. Over time the ice began to melt, and ice-water glooped its way into her crack. The first time she felt it she reared her head up and gasped - it was so cold, all over again! She felt it as it pooled near her tail, getting bigger and bigger (and warmer) and finally got heavy enough to break its surface tension and flow down the arc of her crack.

The way it suddenly cooled most of her butt crack felt awesome, almost enough to make her buck. But she stopped at the last moment and settled down again.

After that, her life became a waiting game before the next pool of melt-water cascaded between her butt cheeks.

xXx

She spent lot of the time on her belly or walking on hard-to-get-to clouds and barren mountaintops where there were definitely no dragons and where she didn't believe she would be found, and even more discretely flying when the sheer boredom started driving her crazy. It soon got lonely and she hoped her butt would stop glowing sooner or later so she could rejoin her friends. In the meantime she had lots of time to think.

Her sorties were awkward: walk too slow and her tail would brush against her injury, rubbing left-right-left-right against it and making her wince. Try to trot and she stressed her glutes enough that they sang with pain. She discovered that a brisk walk came as close to doing the trick as she could get, although stopping inevitably made her tail bounce against her butt and gave her a snare-drum rush of burning agony. It made it feel as if somepony had found a clutch of thin twigs, set them alight and used them to spank her.

It hadn't been much better just laying around - she still had to keep her tail away from her butt all the time. She only went on her second walk because the indignity of keeping her tail up and away from her cheeks was getting to be too much. She'd been keeping a careful eye out in case anypony came up behind her because if they did, they'd see a sight no lady would want them to see.

In fact, she had several close calls with ponies coming to see her - in particular Fluttershy's nurturing nature nearly led her to see Dash's red butt, which she only managed to hide by switching the ice pack she'd been cooling her butt with from her butt to her head and quickly covering her rear end in cloud.

"Oh sure, I'm just a little... flu-ey-" Rainbow Dash had always been good at improvising. "Don't you worry about me Fluttershy, I'm just catching up on some well-earned rest." She'd pulled the cloud over herself more, like a blanket, and rewarded Fluttershy with a reassuring smile to tell her there was nothing at all to worry about and she could go away now.

Right after Fluttershy had gone out of sight - and earshot - the weather pegasus had thrown the cloud off her and hissed with the pain of the cloud touching her butt cheeks, burying her muzzle into the cloud so she would whimper without drawing attention.

How in Celestia's name could cloud feel so rough and hot? She replaced the ice pack in double-quick time and it brought her some relief.

Two of her colleagues had come by too, to check on her and see why she wasn't helping clear the clouds. She'd put the ice pack from her butt on her head again and used the flu act again to rid of them, making an excellent job of feigning sleepy relaxation as the cloud pressed infernally down on her butt, pushing her fur strands against the skin and making it feel so prickly it brought tears to her eyes and made her nose run a little.

"You look sick," commented Stormy Spell, her boss. "Why don't you take the next few days off?"

"Ah sure, that'd be great. Thanks," said Rainbow Dash and silently thanked her lucky stars as Stormy Spell and Sunray left and she could replace the ice pack once more.

The injury never scarred, which Rainbow Dash found a relief. Instead the pain and redness gradually faded. She thought it was strange that the skin didn't toughen up in any way, it remained soft to the touch - but so hot!

Yes indeed, it turned out that laying still and doing nothing was anything but relaxing, at least for Rainbow Dash. She took more walks to get the little bit of exercise she could and to stimulate her mind.

"That was a close call," she said to herself on one of her walks. She'd started talking to herself in her self-imposed solitude and had already made a mental note to stop it before she got back to Ponyville. What was worse, every move of her hind legs pulled on the muscles and skin of her butt and razed it with imaginary fire. It was the only part of her that felt too hot in this cold place. On the other hoof, Rainbow Dash was so bored that the pain acted as a distraction. Soon she would want it to stop and to lay still again for the relief, but for the moment she needed a break from laying on that cloud.

"I got so close!" she continued. "I can't believe I didn't get him. I'm sure I had everything I - ow! - I needed. A weapon, armour, a potion. Maybe if I'd done things differently it would have gone better." She scuffed at the loose scree at her feet to distract her from her phantom-burning of her butt. "He hurt me. I should have gone all-out then! I could have won!"

But how? How could she have won? She thought about the armour - if things had gone differently she could have cooked inside it. Also, had a spear been such a good idea, a long straight weapon to fight a creature she had to duck and twist so much to fight without getting burnt? And it was clear to her that the potion hadn't been as useful as she'd needed it to be.

What did she have, after all, to fight a dragon? "Only my pride," she murmured to herself. She could think of nothing more, not after that.

Her butt had something to say, though. It glowed hotter and she found herself aware of its size, its colour, without even having to look at it. It pulled, straightened and contracted as she trotted along trying to forget, trying to leave behind the heat, but it was always there and as she thought about the fight, that blue fire, it felt all the hotter.

The burn would be following her around for quite a while, she knew that now. Heck, even going to the bathroom reminded her of the pain and humiliation.

THE END.


End file.
